


I Would Pull Apart Time for You

by kjdradcliffe



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Poor Bucky, Poor Clint, Secret Relationship, Time Travel, supervillians are the worst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:34:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22044166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kjdradcliffe/pseuds/kjdradcliffe
Summary: Clint can't figure out what Bucky's problem is him.  After taking a shot meant for Bucky, Clint finds out it's more of Past Bucky has an issue with Future Him.  It's all confusing and he knows he'll get blamed for breaking the time space continuum .Written for endof_theline for the Winterhawk Wonderland Exchange.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  Thank you for the wonderful prompts!
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Comments: 4
Kudos: 45
Collections: Winterhawk Wonderland





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [endof_theline](https://archiveofourown.org/users/endof_theline/gifts).



“Yeah? Well, put your freaky gun down and we’ll see just how superior you really are!” Clint kicked at the bars of his prison before he felt a hand jerk him back into the group of his fellow prisoners.

“Barton! Shut your mouth before you get yourself killed!” Barnes growled in his ears. At any other time Clint would have welcomed the closeness and the hot breath in his ears, but considering their current situation and company, he pulled away. 

“You got some balls on you, Iowa. But try to not piss off the guy that has his “freaky gun” pointed at the rest of us, will ya? That ain’t how I want to go out.”

“Yeah, yeah, Dum dum. I read you.” Clint glanced over to the man in the bowler hat. 

Leaning against the bars, he looked over at the figure of one Sgt. James Buchanan Barnes with slitted eyes. If someone had told him a month ago what was going to happen he would have laughed them off, even with all the weirdness he had experienced as an Avenger.

* * *

Ever since Steve had brought Bucky in from the cold to Avengers Towers, Clint had felt drawn to him. No matter how hard he tried to be friendly, he couldn’t crack the man’s walls. And it was starting to seem like those walls were only in place for him. 

Of course Steve and Bucky were rebuilding their brotherly bond. Thor was spending time back and forth between Asgard and Midgard so they didn’t interact a lot, but Bucky was always polite. Nat and Bucky had some shared history that seemed to spark a connection or at least long conversations in Russian. Sam and Bucky traded friendly insults back and forth. Bruce and Wanda were on team fix Bucky’s brain so they were always checking in with him. Surprisingly, Tony was able to move beyond what Bucky had been ordered to do to his parents and had the longest conversations with him in English about the shared love of science.

The only person Bucky seemed to have a problem with was Clint. He wasn’t out right rude in any way, but there was definitely a barrier in place. He only talked to Clint if necessary and most often in monosyllable. He never looked Clint in the eye. If Clint walked into a room, it wasn’t long before Bucky was walking out. All together it wasn’t a blatant rejection, unless you were a former spy then it was a blatantly subtle rejection. 

Clint couldn’t figure it out. At first he thought maybe he’d started off on the wrong foot, said the wrong thing when they first met. But after going back over everything, Clint couldn’t see where anything he’d said could have caused such a reaction. So his next thought was that when you’re dealing with the aftermath of mind control you have more bad days than good. He knew that personally. But it didn’t seem to matter from where he stood. Bucky could appear to be in a great mood to Clint from afar and as soon as he joined him, Bucky would pull his disappearing act. 

It all came to a head one afternoon, on one of Bucky’s bad days. Clint joined the group for the heckling of the new episode of the “officially licensed” Avengers cartoon. It was something they did every Sunday afternoon, gather together and make fun of the stories and each other and throw popcorn at the screen. It was amazing how much of a bonding experience snarking at cartoon characters could be. Usually. 

This time Clint had barely entered Bucky’s field of vision when Bucky had stood up and started to leave the room like he was on autopilot. And Clint. Well, he wasn’t having a great day either and he just couldn’t take it anymore.

“What did I do? What is so awful about me that you can’t even stand to be in the same space with me?” Clint had demanded. 

Bucky had stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around. And for the first time since he stepped foot in the tower, Bucky looked Clint in the eyes. 

As the humiliating silence stretched out, Clint tried one more time to reach him. “I’m sorry, Barnes.”

Barnes looked like he’d been hit, eyes closing and taking a deep breath. Then without opening his eyes he’d said, “You’re the punishment for all the bad things I’ve done.” 

Clint had been saved from having to respond to that painful comment in front of the entire team by the call out alarm. Everybody sprang into action as Jarvis gave them the breakdown of the latest incident. And if it took a little bit longer for Clint to get his ass in gear no one was going to comment on it.

* * *

Neither were they going to comment on the tension in the quinjet as they headed to deal with some megalomaniac with unusual weapons near Edinburgh, Indiana. Or maybe that was just him. 

Clint tried to pay attention to Steve as he collaborated with everyone on the plan of action. But he mostly looked for a good place for his perch so he can give everyone the most coverage and tried not to think about, you know, being someones punishment. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard something like that and he’d thought statements like that couldn’t hurt anymore. Oops, wrong again. 

They got to the site and Tony quickly flew him out to his position. Then he didn’t have time to think. The villain du jour, Gun Runner or Run Gunner, whatever it was stupid and Clint was going to call him Ass Hat, was somehow able to use his guns to create all kinds of additional reinforcements to keep the Avengers just busy enough that they couldn’t get to him and stop whatever his plan was for the local military base. The guns and Ass Hat were shielded too and had deflected everything they had thrown at them. 

It was during a lull in the fighting that Clint had noticed the disturbances in the ground around the guns. Following them out led to a large area of ground that had been recently dug up. The area was far enough from the action that it would have been easily overlooked. There were too many civilians in the area for the payload he had capable of taking anything that size out. He’d quickly called out the situation over coms and, of course, Bucky had been the one to respond. 

As Bucky had headed to the area Clint had indicated he’d caught the attention of Ass Hat who started switching guns and turning towards Bucky. Clint tried to call out a warning to Bucky, but was told to “can it” as Bucky started digging through the ground to get to whatever had been hidden underneath. Without really thinking about it, he shot a line down towards Bucky and used his bow to zip down from the top of the building he was on. Just as he had been about to touch ground by Bucky three things happened nearly at once, Bucky’d found the power system for the shields and rendered them useless with a well placed punch, with the shields down Steve was able to take out the Ass Hat with a well placed shield to the back of the head, but not before Ass Hat had got a shot off just as Clint was between him and Bucky.

It didn’t hurt really, Clint had thought as his hands just let go and he fell into Bucky. He’d been shot enough before that he knew what it felt like, not that. It had felt like his body going to sleep on him. As Bucky grabbed and gently lowered him to the ground he’d decided he didn’t care for the feeling. He could hear the team taking out the guns and the strange reinforcements. He’d wanted to tell Bucky that he felt weird, but his mouth hadn’t wanted to cooperate. His vision started tunneling as he heard Bucky calling for help. 

The last thing he’d heard before he went out was Bucky pleading, “Not again.”

Then dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Titters of conversation started making their way through the gathered prisoners, passing from one cell to another. Clint looked up from where he and Bucky where sitting on the cold concrete, leaned back against the bars. As they stood up bodies started shuffling toward the back of the cells, as if to get away from some sort of threat. 

Clint looked down the walkway to see a small nervous looking man slowly making his way down past the cells, occasionally pausing to look at the men inside. The avoidant reaction to such a slip of man seemed overly paranoid. Unless you hadn’t seen the show before. This little rat of a man would come out, look them over like livestock, and then he would choose someone. The guard that trailed behind him, like threatening shadows, would grab the unlucky bastard and take him with them after the rat man. And no one had ever come back. 

The only person who had any clue what was happening was Clint, because sneaking in and reading old, highly classified S.H.I.E.L.D. files had been a hobby at one point. He’d always found history interesting. 

So Clint knew what was up when Zola stopped in front of their cell. He was so pissed about the situation they were in he didn’t even think to pull away from the man. This was the guy that had messed with Bucky, Steve, and Natasha (granted the last one was his computer analog, but still.) All he could do was stand there and hate the man. 

Zola noticed his attention immediately. “Ah, young man. You have something to say, perhaps.”

Clint muttered under his breath. “Captain America will be the end of you.” He could feel hands trying to grab his pants and pull him back, but he jerked out of their grasp. 

Zola moved too close to the bars, saying, “What was that?”

And Clint burst in to action. He dove for the bars and grabbed the slimy Hydra agent around the throat and bringing them face to face. “Listen you little weasel,” he growled as he squeezed, “you think you’re safe in here. That you’re going to be a head of Hydra.” He felt the guards reach them and try to pull him away.

“You got another think coming,” he continued, “Death is coming for you. Captain America will take you out, you sack of shit.” He felt the butt of one of the rifles make contact with his arm which caused him to immediately let go and drop Zola who hit the ground hard, red-faced and gasping for breath. 

As soon as Zola was out of his grasp the cell door opened and guards rushed in to start beating him down. The first couple of hits brought him to his knees, but this wasn’t the first time he’d faced impossible odds. He forced himself to his feet and prepared to go down fighting. 

“Stop!” Zola’s strained voice rang out. “Bring him to my laboratory.” Extra guards Clint hadn’t noticed before slipped in the cell and aimed their guns at the other prisoners. Knowing that past, alternative universe, or whatever, he couldn’t risk Bucky or the other Commandos, Clint lowered his hands. 

It didn’t take long for the guards to truss him up and march him toward where Zola had limped off to. As they pulled him out of the cell, he met Bucky’s eyes and saw the stricken look there.

Before they pulled him away he said, “I’m sorry, Bucky.”

* * *

Clint really didn’t know what to expect after everything had gone dark, but waking up in boot camp for World War II was not it. He was apparently training with the 107th, which happened to be the battalion that Bucky had been in and the one Steve had tried to join. 

After a few days of being a time traveling tourist, he got his act together and tried to figure out what was going on. Was he stuck here? Was he in the past? An alternate reality? Was it like that TV show, Quantum Leap, and he had something he needed to do? Could he phone a friend? 

Apparently not. 

So he figured he’d play along until he figured something out. Which was when he found out that not only was Bucky attractive, but he was pretty fun to be around. They became fast friends and pains in the commander’s ass. They were often told, “Barnes, Barton, you’re gonna be the death of me. Will ya give it break?” But their shenanigans helped to boost morale, and they never did anything to endanger anyone, so it was all good. 

It was still war though. And there were times that were life and death. 

After a close call in one battle, Bucky had to reassure himself that Clint was alright. To which Clint had no complaints. It was then that Clint realised that he was in deep. His attraction had evolved to something deeper. And though they didn’t discuss it in so many words, Bucky seemed to share those feelings. The dangers of the relationship meant that they didn’t get much alone time together, but as a sniper-spotter team, they had more than they might have otherwise. And if anyone in their unit had any inkling of what was going on, they kept it to themselves, because they weren’t going to screw over the people who watched their backs.

Everything was going good until Azzano. They were overrun by Schmidt’s troops and captured. If everything Clint had read was correct, things were about to go to shit.


End file.
